Jan. 23, 2015
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Auburn track and field opened the Vanderbilt Invitational with one win and five new personal records on Friday at the Vanderbilt Student Recreation Center.
"We had a few positive things happen on the first night of the meet," head coach Ralph Spry said. "Griffin Jaworski was a few seconds off his PR, but he was able to set himself apart from the field. He had a great race by himself. Shawn Johnson set a PR in his first triple jump of the year. It is a good start to the year for him as he had a PR last week in the long jump, so that is a good sign. Brianna Heilsnis now has back-to-back PRs. She just missed the finals, but anytime you get a PR, you are going in the good direction. Tomorrow is the bulk of the meet, and if we can feed off of tonight tomorrow, it should be a fun day."
Senior Griffin Jaworski led wire-to-wire to win the men's 5000m with a time of 14:18.90. Junior Redatu Semeon ran a 14:58.96 in the event, besting his previous record of 16:03.89 set at the 2014 America East Championships.
Junior Shawn Johnson notched a personal record in the triple jump with a distance of 51-6.5/15.71m to finish third, as junior Coren Crompton cleared 15-7/4.75m in the pole vault to set a new personal record.
In the women's weight throw, sophomore Brianna Heilsnis recorded a personal-best throw of 56-3/17.14m, and sophomore Veronica Eder clocked a 17:01.34, a personal record, in the 5000m.
Day two of the Vanderbilt Invitation is set to begin Saturday at 10:30 a.m. CT with the women's mile. Live results for the meet can be found online at www.cfpitiming.com.
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